State lawmaker Ben Arredondo pleads guilty to two felonies

Will resign his position in Arizona Legislature as part of the plea deal

Tempe politician Ben Arredondo pleaded guilty to two felonies and agreed to resign his legislative seat Friday, becoming the latest in a string of Arizona politicians to face criminal and ethics charges.

Trembling as he addressed the court, Arredondo pleaded guilty in federal court to honest services fraud and mail fraud. Honest services fraud is a federal charge often used in cases related to public corruption. Each felony comes with a maximum prison sentence of up to 20 years and $250,000 in fines. Restitution could be up to $50,000.

He was indicted May 16 on charges of bribery, mail fraud, lying and extortion stemming from an FBI sting that took place between February 2009, when Arredondo was a Tempe City Council member, and November 2010, shortly after he won the House seat. The longtime GOP politico switched parties prior to winning the legislative seat.

As part of the plea, Arredondo agreed to resign from the Legislature.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors now has about three weeks to appoint a Democratic replacement. The supervisors will make the appointment from among three nominees selected by precinct committee members from Legislative District 17, which Arredondo represented.

He will be sentenced Jan. 22. He declined to comment.

Arredondo is the second Democratic state lawmaker to plead guilty to federal felony charges this year and the third person in the state Capitol arena to be snared by an FBI corruption investigation.

Last week, former Republican House staffer John Mills was indicted on 15 counts of mail fraud after an investigation said he was using state Rep. Jim Weiers' campaign account as a sort of revolving fund for personal purchases, mortgage payments and stock purchases. He paid the money back, records show. He has pleaded not guilty.

In February, Rep. Richard Miranda abruptly resigned from the Legislature and in June pleaded guilty to felony wire fraud and attempted tax evasion for selling a Surprise building owned by a non-profit he ran and pocketing the money. Miranda was sentenced to a 27-month federal prison sentence and must pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A legacy unraveled

Arredondo's 40-year legacy as an educator and public servant came to an end Friday in the courtroom where he was flanked by his attorneys and small group of relatives, including wife Ruth Ann.

The former high-school coach known for his blunt, tough-talking style has been publicly silent since the federal charges were filed. The native Arizonan's high-profile career spanned decades working for Valley schools and serving in city, county and state government posts.

A Tempe park and public school bear his family's last name as a tribute to his public service.

Arredondo worked 28 years for Mesa Public Schools and served on the Tempe Elementary School District board for a decade. In 1991, Arredondo was appointed to serve two years on the county Board of Supervisors when Ed Pastor resigned to run for Congress. Three years later, he won a seat on the Tempe City Council, becoming the second Hispanic elected to the council since the city was established in 1894.

Arredondo's ethics came into question in 2007, when allegations surfaced that he violated county policies by hiring friends and relatives to work for the Maricopa County Regional School District, where he served as deputy schools superintendent. He had retired a year earlier, a few months prior to district Superintendent Sandra Dowling's indictment on 25 felony charges.

Arredondo was never charged with wrongdoing as the district audit focused on Dowling, who eventually pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor in what she alleged was a politically motivated case.

In 2009, after serving 16 years on the Tempe council, Arredondo switched parties to run for the Legislature.

Less than a year after winning the District 17 House seat, Arredondo was named in the Fiesta Bowl scandal. He accepted tickets to sporting events from bowl executives after helping the bowl secure a $6.45million subsidy from Tempe in 2005.

County Attorney Bill Montgomery's investigation of the 31 elected officials who took gifts from the bowl concluded that charges were not warranted because the rules related to accepting gifts were unclear.

The federal investigation was viewed by some Valley residents as an overdue reckoning for Arredondo. But his longtime supporters hoped it was an opportunity to clear his name.

Tempe Councilman Joel Navarro said Friday that Arredondo has taken responsibility and that the wrongdoing should not negate the good he did for his constituents.

"If Ben feels comfortable that's what he felt was the right thing to do, then I applaud him for standing up for that," he said. "He still has done some great things for the community. It is a shame that (there's) an outcome like this, that it has come down to this."

As part of the plea, federal prosecutors agreed to dismiss all other charges against Arredondo.

And if the former lawmaker fulfills the terms of the agreement, federal prosecutors agreed in court that they will not prosecute Arredondo's wife for any crimes related to the U.S. Department of Justice's case against Arredondo.

Arredondo broke down in court, wiping his face and choking back emotion as he faced Judge Lawrence Anderson. Anderson said Arredondo accepted a bribe in exchange for services and defrauded the residents of Tempe and Arizona of their right to honest services.

Federal prosecutors in court said Arredondo accepted about $6,000 in tickets to charity events and college and professional sporting events. The tickets were bribes in exchange for giving undercover FBI agents posing as developers the inside track on a Tempe land deal, prosecutors said.

Federal prosecutor Monique Abrishami said that after Arredondo's election to the state House, he reassured the agents that he and an incoming Tempe council member would support their development project. ''

"'You guys will ask, you guys will have. I don't know how else to say it,'" Abrishami reported Arredondo had told the agents. " 'We'll be just fine because not only we're covered at the city, we're covered now at the state.'"

Information presented in court showed that, in 2001, Arredondo established the Arredondo Scholarship Fund for "average" students needing financial support and operated it through at least 2011. Prosecutors said Arredondo solicited donations for the fund, never telling donors that a portion of the money would go to scholarships for his own relatives.

Seven of Arredondo's relatives received a total of nearly $50,000 to attend Arizona educational institutions.

Widening scope

Rep. Ed Ableser, D-Tempe, said Arredondo is among a growing number of Arizona politicians who have violated their duty to uphold the law. Ableser successfully ran as a team with Arredondo for their district's two House seats, calling themselves the "A Team."

Voters have every right to be angry with Arizona politicians, Ableser said, "given the amount of unethical behaviors by lobbyist and legislators over the past year that have destroyed the public's trust in their elected officials."

Earlier this week, County Attorney Montgomery announced that a 14-month investigation had concluded that Republican Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, the state's top law-enforcement official, deliberately broke campaign-finance laws during his 2010 bid for office by coordinating with an independent expenditure committee. Horne has said he did nothing wrong.

Navarro said constituents have approached him at grocery stores and ball games asking about the worrisome state of Tempe and Arizona politics.

"It seems like politics in every form has been at the forefront of the community's mind," he said. "Ever since this whole thing with the state and the Fiesta Bowl outbreak, we've been taking a hard look at whether we are doing everything we can."

Last week's federal indictment of Mills, the GOP aide charged with using campaign donations to help pay for various mortgages and investments, could signal that the FBI investigation of Arredondo may still extend to more Valley politicians.

Legal experts have said that the delay in the time between investigating and charging Arredondo indicates that the FBI may be investigating others.

Following Arredondo's indictment, Kenneth Fields, a retired Maricopa County Superior Court judge, told The Republic that in his experience as a federal prosecutor, it is uncommon for federal officials to investigate issues such as Arredondo's crimes as a councilman unless there is a wider scope of wrongdoing suspected.

He said prosecutors may see Arredondo as the "low-hanging fruit" that they hope to turn as a witness against bigger players.